Insurance giant Winterthur is likely to press ahead with its £100 million negligence action against more than 700 law firms involved in The Accident Group (TAG) - and will pursue more than 65,000 cases, the Gazette understands.


Following a sample audit of 3,000 files that it began last year, the insurer has decided that only 10% of cases are not worth pursuing. There are 76,000 cases in total.



Firms had claimed that many of the cases should be dropped because practices had returned the file at an early stage to TAG, or the claimant had not co-operated with solicitors. However, it is understood that no law firm has been removed from the litigation following the sample audit, and four new firms have been added.



Steve Holland, executive director of broker Alexander Forbes Professions, said: 'Insurers are not wavering and seem to be very keen on pursuing this through the courts. There are no firms that have been taken off the schedule completely.



'Those [cases] that have been removed have been [taken out] for technical reasons. Defences were filed on behalf of the panel firms, but this does not seem to have affected how the insurers are pursuing these cases.'



He added: 'If insurers are looking for a negotiated settlement prior to trial, this will keep the pressure on.'



Winterthur alleges that firms handling claims under the TAG scheme were negligent in failing to vet and monitor cases properly. The firms are vigorously defending the action.



The insurer won the right to conduct the audit when it defeated a claim by the defendant law firms that the files, many of which contained sensitive medical information, were subject to legal privilege (see [2006] Gazette, 21 April, 1).



The litigation is expected to come to trial in spring next year.



Winterthur did not provide a comment.



By Rachel Rothwell